


Up to the Test

by shipatfirstsight



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Chat!Kylo, F/M, Fluff, Freeform, Is this Romance without Plot??, Ladybug!Rey, Miraculous Ladybug AU, Mutual Pining, This was supposed to have more characters but I got caught up in the romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-27 20:49:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6299896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shipatfirstsight/pseuds/shipatfirstsight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey liked the masks that hid their identities from each other. </p>
<p>Or: Totally unnecessary Miraculous Ladybug AU because it was requested.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Up to the Test

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kinda_shipping](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kinda_shipping/gifts).



> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
>  
> 
> Okay so Rey's kwami is inspired by the little BB-8 app enabled droid you can buy, so BB-8 is that size. I changed some of the mythology to make it work within a Star Wars setting, but everything else should be explained (I hope).
> 
> Unedited, so sorry for any mistakes!

A mask could hide a lot about a person, Rey thought, not for the first time. With a mask over her face she felt free. She wasn’t plain old Rey, a nobody. She was Ladybug, the hero of New York City. She had fans with her mask in place, whole websites devoted to her. When she thought about revealing her identity to anyone, she shied away from the idea. It was enough that they liked and adored a part of her; she wasn’t even sure that anyone would believe her if she told them. She was nothing special.

_You’re special to me,_ her little kwami, BB-8, beeped out. Rey smiled down at the little robot on desk.

“At least I know you believe in me,” she murmured back, placing a small kiss on BB-8’s head.

She’d been thinking about masks a lot, if she was being honest.

Rey couldn't remember a time when she didn't have a hopeless crush on Ben Solo. Hopeless because he didn't seem interested in anyone or anything. Besides, she’d known him forever and he probably only thought of her—if he thought of her at all—as that little foster kid that used to follow him around everywhere. She wondered how he felt about Ladybug. Wondered if he would show more interest in her hero self than in her. It wouldn’t be impossible, she supposes, to live with a mask all the time.

She didn’t know why she’d been chosen. One day, she got back to her dorm room to find a box that hadn’t been there when she’d left sitting on her bed. Inside were earrings and BB-8. Her first transformation had been weird, to say the least. Anybody would be freaked out to find themselves suddenly covered in form fitting red spandex and a mask, only having just been told that it was apparently now her responsibility to keep New York—and the world—safe from some mysterious villain who went by Hawkmoth.

He kept controlling people, forcing them to join his cause. For every person she saved, it seemed she lost ten more to him. And then there was the matter of the Chat Noir—Kylo Ren. BB-8 had explained that he was _supposed_ to be on her side; he was _supposed_ to help _her_. But she’d gotten to him too late it seemed. He was working with the villain, trying to get her to join their side so that Hawkmoth could utilize both of their powers in his quest for global domination. Yeah, she didn’t really want to get in on that at all.

In the beginning, though, she’d almost given up her powers. She was convinced that whoever had chosen her had made an awful mistake. She’d run away from her powers, almost making the city fall into chaos and darkness. It wasn’t fair that she had to have all that responsibility on her shoulders. But when she took the earrings off, placing them and BB-8 back into the box, she’d felt a twinge of regret at the loss of the powers. She’d ignored the news stations for hours, but then a note blew in through her window.

_Rey,_ it read, in clear, hard script, and she could almost pass it off as coincidence, but something in her knew this was real and for her. _These are your first steps._

And, well, she’d taken the burden on willingly. Even if she still wasn’t sure why she’d been chosen, she would keep protecting the city.

* * *

Ben sighed, twisting the ring on his finger. His grandfather was there; he could see the ghostly shadow of him out of the corner of his eye. The ring was a heavy burden. His grandfather had misused the power the ring gave to the bearer and was trapped in it. It was his job to fix his grandfather’s legacy, but it was a heavy weight to consider. He wished that Anakin would just _talk_ to him though instead of standing just out of his line of sight, looking on sadly.

Snoke—Hawkmoth to the rest of the world—had explained everything. His grandfather’s duty had been to the previous Hawkmoth and he had betrayed his duty for the previous Ladybug; sure, she was Ben’s grandmother, but Anakin had still had an obligation that he had denied.

“He should have given up on her when she would not be swayed to our just cause,” Snoke would say, often, “but he was consumed with _love_.” Love was always spit out, cruelly and coldly. “Don’t let yourself make the same mistake.”

Ben was determined not to. He’d been very careful not to form any lasting attachments. He felt half-bad about Rey; he cared about the kid, really, but there was something greater he was fighting for. Maybe he could convince her to join them… He’d had to quash his happiness at seeing her on his college campus, but if he could get her to join them he could be happy with her.

Then there was Ladybug. He didn’t understand what her problem was, but Snoke explained it was the Ladybug’s way, too consumed with themselves to see the harm in their actions.

“I’m going to save humanity,” Snoke would mutter, sadly, every time she thrwarted one of their efforts. “Why won’t she just _let_ me?”

This time, steeling his scared and masked face, Ben’s mentor finally whispered. “Bring her to me. I will explain personally. And she will join or die.”

There was nothing for Ben but to utter his agreement.

* * *

This wasn’t the first time she’d seen Kylo Ren up close. He was horrible to behold; something out of a daydream and a nightmare all at once. His form was covered in black spandex, the pale skin of his face a stark contrast to the black suit clothing him. He walked with determination and confidence, like he owned everything and everyone. Rey knew all that. She’d just never seen him up close before.

A mask covered the skin around his eyes that glowed yellow. Even with the mask, she could see the bags under his eyes. Up close, he looked tired, like everything about him was a front. She swung her yo-yo at him, trying to make the cable wrap around his leg so she could get his feet out from under him. He sidestepped her, like he’d anticipated her move. “Ladybug. So you’re the one who keeps ruining all our plans.”

“That’s me,” she said, swinging at him again with the yo-yo. He caught it, tugging her to him. She struggled, digging her heels down into the roof. When she was close enough to him, she used her legs to knock his feet out from under him, making him fall with an almost comical _oomph_.

“Why do you keep fighting us?” he asked, features fighting against the pain he was surely feeling. He flipped up, assuming a defense stance opposite her.

“I’m not going to let you or your _master_ plunge the world into darkness,” she responded, stating the obvious. They moved in tandem, mirroring each other, circling.

“We’re going to save this world from chaos,” he explained, like he really believed what he was saying.

“By forcing people to side with you? By taking away their free will?” she couldn’t believe this guy, couldn’t believe he was supposed to be helping her.

“How else can we save them from themselves?” he asked. He sounded like a man who had every surety in his beliefs.

“Hawkmoth doesn’t care about this world,” she says, pitying him for his faith in man who didn’t deserve it, “For a thousand years, every Hawmoth has been only after their own gain. He wants to use us so he can control the world. Don’t you see?”

“No, no, he wouldn’t lie to me,” the man responded dodging at her. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” With that, he pressed forward harder, striking and dodging, advancing on her. She blocked his every move, whether with the yo-yo or with her arms, but he backed her to the edge of the roof, catching every swing of her weapon with the small staff he held in his hand. And then she decided it was time for her to go on the attack.

“You need a teacher,” he pleads, desperation coating his voice, “I can show you the true meaning of your powers.”

She doesn’t respond, just pushes her advantage.

Hours later, sitting in her own room once more, Rey can still picture the way his face twisted in agony when she used the metal string of her yo-yo against his skin. She was justified, she assures herself. If she hadn’t fought back, he would have taken her to Hawkmoth, and she couldn’t let him win. But she could almost feel his pain as she did it, and it had felt horrible. A voice had whispered in her head and all around her for her to  _kill him_ , and she knew she she couldn't listen to that voice. 

* * *

"I'm not going to heal you," Snoke says, a sneer twisting his mouth more than it was already twisted. "Let it serve as a reminder of your failure here today."

"Yes, Supreme Leader," Ben replies, as he knows he's supposed to, backing out of the room bowed over. His grandfather follows him, his expression different than it usually is. Instead of the ever-present-sadness, there is anger on his face. "I'm sorry I failed, grandfather," he whispers to the apparition. I won't let it happen again."

* * *

Ladybug _was_ beautiful, he supposed when they met again, even as she fought against him and everything he knew to be right. Maybe it was because of the way she fought though. He didn't want to dwell on it too much.

“Snoke told me to kill you,” she eventually says, speaking for the first time around their growls and grunts. “He’s always telling me to kill you.”

“No. That’s not true,” he won’t believe it, he refuses to believe it. He can’t believe that it’s true.

“It is,” she returns, not cruelly, but like she’s trying to _help_ him.

Ben doesn’t want her help or her pity.

* * *

Rey felt bad for the man she kept fighting and she wasn’t sure that was a good thing. The more they met, the more she could feel the edge of his thoughts.

_It’s how it should be_ , BB-8 beeps at her. _Ladybug and Chat Noir are_ supposed _to be bonded for life_ , _protecting each other._

“I don’t think we’re ever going to protect each other, BB,” she whispers sadly. She can feel the truth in her kwami’s words, and it hurts to think of what might have been if Hawkmoth hadn’t taken Kylo.

Rey hadn’t seen Ben in what felt like forever. He was missing all of their classes, and Poe and Finn hadn’t seen him either. When he did show up, he had stitches on a line up his face.

“Car accident,” he explains tersely to anyone who asks.

After class, she goes up to him. “I can fix your car if you want. I know how, and I won’t charge as much as a car place.”

“No thanks,” he responds, brushing past her. Defeated, she wanders home, waiting for the next Kylo Ren and his army of evil doers sighting to come.

* * *

Ben feels bad about Rey, really he does, and it seems he’s always feeling bad about her. He just doesn’t even have a car for her to fix. Obviously, if he told anyone that Ladybug had given him the cut on his face, they would know who he was, and Snoke was positive that anonymity was the best course of action for now. The government, like Ladybug, didn’t understand.

“In time, my apprentice, we’ll be able to revel ourselves to the world,” Snoke promised when this all had begun.

Then there’s the matter of Ladybug herself. Ben’s repeated failure in getting the girl to come of her own free will or capturing her was wearing on him and on Snoke’s patience with him.

“I did _not_ chose you so you could fail when it mattered most,” Snoke growls. “Do not come back before me until you have the girl.”

It’s an order that Ben immediately obeys.

* * *

Kylo never seems to rest anymore; like he has no reason to retreat back to his master. Rey’s really getting sick and tired of it. It was hard enough to balance fighting him and doing school work when they had an unspoken agreement to take breaks in between their fights. Now, he was there in the city almost constantly. She’d get small moments to regroup and rest, and then he’d be there again taunting her and calling her out. He was desperate now, though, more than he had ever been, and if she knows anything, she knows desperation is dangerous.

* * *

_Masks firmly in place, their lips met in a tentative way; she felt more like Rey than like Ladybug, all her confidence forgotten. She wondered who he was in real life, what he acted like without the anonymity of his own mask. He’s softer, gentler, than she expected, totally different from his Chat Noir persona. She arched into him, opening her mouth beneath his._

Rey woke up with a gasp, fingers raising to ghost over her lips. It wasn’t the first time she’d had the dream, and she was positive it wouldn’t be the last. When she did have some moments to sleep, she was haunted by dreams of kissing _Kylo_. She knew desire for him was wrong, worse than anything else, except maybe that still niggling voice in the back of her head that told her to kill him.

Still, when she meets him to fight and stop him once more, she’s distracted by memories of her dreams. Rey liked the masks that hid their identities from each other. She can separate him from anyone else in the world because of the mask; she knows who he is. She doesn’t need to know who he is without the mask on, and she doesn’t want to. Pity for him is something she can’t afford when the fate of the world is at stake. Rey knew she was going to have to push down their weird connection. It was a remnant of some forgotten time, some sign that he was supposed to be on her side. It didn’t mean anything, though. It couldn't mean anything.

* * *

Ben looks more and more tired every time she sees him, when he’s actually in class, and that’s only when she makes it to class herself. The scar on his face is healing at least. She waves at him, offering a smile as she takes her seat between Finn and Poe. She doesn’t turn to see if he returns either expression.

After class, a hand on her arm stops her from leaving. She turns, and there he is, standing before her. “Want to go out for coffee?” he asks.

Rey nodded quickly, not even needing to think about it. I _f anything, it will get Kylo out of my head_ , she thinks and immediately feels bad. Her lifelong crush was finally initiating something where they could spend time with each other, so why the hell was she thinking about Kylo?

* * *

The longer Ben stayed away from Snoke, the more he had trouble remembering why he even decided to join him in the first place. It all seems hollow compared to the quiet surety of Ladybug. She never pressured him, never insisted she was right. He wasn’t sure why he continued to fight her. His grandfather looked less sad at least, from what he could see of him, but Ben has no idea what that could possibly mean.

And then there’s the matter of the dreams. He could blame his sudden distrust of Snoke’s words on the dreams, he figured, if he tried hard enough. The dreams were confusing. Ladybug, flushed and panting above him, hips moving against his—it would confuse anyone. The dreams were why he asked Rey out, and he hates himself for that. Rey deserved better than him. It was strange, he’d liked Rey for so long, but now he was struggling between which woman he wanted more; Rey or Ladybug.

One of Hawkmoth’s victims is about to kill her. She can see it as the man raises the gun, leveling it at her face as another woman holds her arms back. Rey struggles to break free. The man’s finger rests on the trigger, ready to pull it. She closes her eyes; she never thought it would end this way. The shot never comes though, just the clear sounds of a struggle and a fight before a shot _does_ go off, but it doesn’t hit her. The woman holding her arms loosens her grip just enough for Rey to finally twist out of her grasp, finding the charm that holds the little butterfly that Hawkmoth was using to control the woman and breaking it, releasing her and the akuma. When the butterfly is transformed back into itself, no longer able to hurt anyone, Rey turns.

The man who tried to kill her is reaching for the gun, trying to get it from where it lays on the ground. With a flick of her wrist and a swing of her yo-yo, the gun is knocked away from him. The man growls in frustration; she approaches him, finding the charm on him and repeating what she did with the woman and butterfly. And then she turns to her rescuer. She can’t stop the gasp that slips through her lips.

Kylo is laying on the ground, clutching his side and panting heavily, his face sweaty, hair sticking to his skin. She rushes to him, pushing his hands to the side and putting pressure on the wound.

“We have to get you to a hospital,” she grits out, wishing she was wearing something besides her form fitting suit so she could wrap something around the wound. She pulls him up, letting him rest heavily against her as she continues to apply pressure. It’s the longest trek of her life; she’s scared to jostle him too much, but she knows she has to get him to the hospital before he bleeds out. She doesn’t even know _why_ she cares so much, she just knows she can’t let him die. He’s half asleep against her by the time they get there and Rey has been dragging his body more than helping him walk for the past ten minutes. 

When they’re there, she pulls him into an alley before anyone can see. She shakes him awake, trying to be gentle. He murmurs, sinking into the wall. “Kylo,” she says, hard and demanding, “You have to wake up. You have to transform back into yourself.”

He doesn’t respond. She’s desperate, unable to think of anything but the fact that he was slowly dying ten feet from the hospital. She grabs his hand for the ring she knows is there, and pulls it off with a tug.

The transformation is quick, instantaneous.

And she can’t believe what she’s looking at.

“Ben,” she breathes, not trusting her eyes. She shakes herself. Later, she’ll think about it later, but right then she needed to get him inside. The staff rushes to her when they see her carrying a very bloody man, taking him and wheeling him away. She stays, rubbing at the blood clinging to her suit. Rey ignores the glances of curious onlookers; she wishes she was her ordinary self in that moment so people would stop looking at her. She just wants to be like any other person worried over someone they care about. She doesn’t want to feel like she has to keep it together to keep up appearances.

_Ben. Ben is Kylo. Ben is Chat Noir._ It makes horrible sense now that she thinks about it, something she should have realized sooner. The biggest give away was the scar on both of their faces, but it was their voices too. Rey paces, waiting for news about him. Finally, finally, after what feels like an eternity a doctor comes out and tells her that he was asking to see her. She rushes to him.

“Ben,” she mutters when she sees him, eyes open and dazed. “You silly cat, why’d you do that?”

“Couldn’t let you die,” he slurs; she chalks it up to the pain meds they had to have given him. “I couldn’t let him hurt you.”

Rey sits in the chair by his bed, pulling closer to him, stroking the hair out of his face. “I thought you believed in Hawkmoth’s mission.”

“Not if it means losing you. Don’t know why I care. But I couldn’t lose you,” he’s struggling to stay awake as she says it, so she stops pressing him for information and lets him fall asleep. 

She remembers his ring is still clutched in her free hand, and she pushes it back onto his finger. Out of the corner of her eye, she thinks she sees a blurry form, looking on at them.

* * *

When Ben woke up, he was alone. He remembers everything, and he groans, clutching at his side and throwing his head back against the pillow. He needed to get out of there; Snoke probably knew what he’d done by now, and he could control anyone and everyone. He was in danger there. With a few painfully slow moves, he unhooked himself from the machines. One transformation later, he was leaving the hospital. He’d ruined everything. He’d made his grandfather’s mistake, and yet it felt right. He couldn't bring himself to regret saving Ladybug.

* * *

Ben is there every time she fights to free one of Hawkmoth’s victims, fighting _with_ her instead of against her. They fall into an easy rhythm, filling in each other’s blank spots and protecting each other like they were supposed to. But she always retreats before either of them can say anything. She’s not sure what she would say anyway.

“You know who I am,” he says one day when she’s about to retreat again. “Won’t you tell me who you are?”

She shakes her head, backing away.

* * *

 

“I love you,” he says the next time, and its everything she’s ever wanted to hear and she wishes he was saying it to _her_ instead of to Ladybug.

“You can’t love me,” she says a little cruelly. “You don’t know _anything_ about me.”

“Yes I do,” he insists stubbornly, not deterred by her rebuttal. “I know you’re brave, and good, and you care about everyone. You want to save everyone. I wish I could be as good as you.”

“That doesn’t mean you love me,” she fires back, jumping away before he can say anything else. She brushes hot, angry tears away when she’s far enough apart from where he is. She’d spent twenty years desperately trying to get him to care for her with a fraction of the emotion she’d felt for him, and she hates that he’s giving it to her this way.

* * *

Ben is kind to her when he sees her in class and actually says hi to her, but he doesn't look at her the way he looks at Ladybug and it kills her a little inside. But he smiles more than he ever has, and he looks rested for once. 

“You want to go for coffee again?” she asks one day.

“Sorry, I can’t,” he responds kindly, looking away from her. “I have a ton of homework.”

“Okay. Maybe some other time?” she presses.

“Sure,” he says easily, but she’s not sure he’s telling the truth.

* * *

“You won’t like who I am,” she tells him the next time he asks, unable to be cruel to him again. “I’m nobody.”

“I’d like you whoever you are,” he’s stopped telling her he loves her at least, and that’s something to be grateful for.

“No,” she says, “no you wouldn’t.”

* * *

Ben wonders if its bad to like two people at once. Everything he does seems to hurt Rey, and he hates the flashes of pain that cross her face. But he doesn’t want to try anything with her while he has feelings for Ladybug. It would be easier if they were the same person, but he wouldn’t be so lucky. Besides, they looked totally different from each other. Ladybug’s hair was always wrapped into three buns, and he was sure Rey’s hair was too short to achieve that with, for one. Their eyes were different colors too, but so were his when he transformed. There was no way to know for sure unless she told him, but she didn’t want to. He was going to stop pressuring her. Ben decides to push his feelings down, to ignore them and just fight with her.

“You’re doing the right thing,” someone whispers, and Ben gasps, twisting around to find his grandfather _smiling_ at him.

“Grandfather?” he asks in shock.

“You’re supposed to protect her, you know. _That_ is your duty. I couldn’t talk to you while you were on Snoke’s side. But you’ve realized on your own,” the spirit says. “I’m proud of you, Ben.”

And, well, at least he knows he’s sort of on the right course.

* * *

She’s ruined when she has to transform in public. It’s either transform in the middle of a crowd or risk being overrun by Hawkmoth’s victims, and she needs her powers to defeat them. And there Ben is, looking at her in shock.

“It _is_ you,” he murmurs, like everything has finally come together in his head.

Rey can’t concentrate on him or the fact that he now _knows_. She has to fight, has to save who she can. She doesn’t retreat when it’s over—and its always only momentarily over. She will face him, now that he knows. She’s gad they’re both still in their suits and masks. It’s easier that way.

“You could have told me,” he starts, but it isn’t an admonishment.

“I wasn’t sure how you would react,” she responds, rubbing at her one arm.

He laughs. “For weeks, I’ve been trying to understand why I wanted two different people.”

“You wanted me—me Rey—too?” she gasps out, a smile breaking over her face.

“God yes,” he says, smiling back at her. She makes up her mind, striding over to him and pulling him down by his hair for a long, deep kiss.

* * *

It makes ten different news stations and its all anyone can talk about for weeks, that Ladybug and Chat Noir are an item, and Ben can’t help but wonder just how angry that makes Snoke. 

**Author's Note:**

> I might continue this??? I'm horrible at writing one shots and leaving them as one shots so....
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> (If I could draw, I would have just drawn this AU, but I can't so.....anyway, if anyone wants to write a better Miraculous Ladybug AU you have my full support. I think I would pay actual money for someone to draw Rey and Kylo in the Ladybug and Chat Noir suits)
> 
> You can find me on [tumblr](http://shipatfirstsight.tumblr.com) ^_^


End file.
